"The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of bone and marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
After these words, they sing a simple chorus:
We love Your word. We love Your word, O God. We love Your word.
I recently had a lengthy phone conversation with an unsaved family member about the gospel. As we talked about creation and sin and eternity and evil and as he threw arguments against the Christian faith and I countered them, he kept insisting, "But those are just your beliefs! You're just saying what you've been taught." "No," I kept responding. "It's not just my beliefs. I'm telling you what the Bible says."
The Bible is far from an ordinary book. It's peculiar from every other inanimate object. Unlike so many other books, it was never meant to merely look pretty on a shelf and collect dust. Its words protect and build up and encourage and convict and blind. It is alive with life and it breathes new life. It is living, breathing, beating, and sharp.
But we restrict the Bible's power sometimes. We pretend that its purpose is to look pretty on the shelf and dusty from neglect. We forget that it contains the very words of God, each word being "God-breathed." (2 Timothy 3:16) We forget the Word of God is the Word of God. And we forget that we ought to love this Word. We ought to adore this book, to not merely visit it, but to "live in it" as C.H. Spurgeon said.
I am guilty of this, sorely and sadly. My Bible rarely sits neglected, but often it's read for the wrong reasons. Or it's skimmed. How wrong of us to skim the words of God, as if we don't need to hang desperately upon each word! Other times, I read the Bible to put a check mark on a page. I read it out of duty but not delight. In short, I take the Word of God for granted.
The Kimyal tribe in Indonesia did not take the Word of God for granted. In this past weekend's Saturday Smile, I shared an incredible video of the Kimyals receiving copies of the New Testament in their native language for the first time. The joy, the weeping, the utter worship of God was indescribable to see. These people understand the importance of the Scriptures. They know its power.
May we in our affluent North America get even a taste of the Kimyals incomprehensible love for the Word of God. May we study the Scriptures and soak in the glory of God. May we know its power and its life and may we never take it for granted. For it is living, breathing, beating, and sharp.
Image Credit: http://www.creationswap.com/artwork/11/6/36/14194/11636_14194_5.jpg